Shelters: What's the best ultralight shelter? Need advice!!

[BenOnAdventures]

Hey adventurers, I've done some research on ultralight backpacking and I'm very interested in it. What's the best shelter for ultralight backpacking? Feel free to recommend any tents, tarps, etc. Any advice will be awesome!! Thank you all so much!

[Mountain Wildman]

I don't know what the best is but if I had the money I'd buy a ZPacks Altaplex or Duplex.

[BenOnAdventures]

okay thank you!!

[Wil]

I like the Zpacks solo bug net with the separate tarp but many people would find it confining. I can actually get all my gear inside, but my Breeze pack just crumples up to nothing beneath my feet (3/4 sleeping pad) and I really don't have much gear. It's well made, extremely light and packs very compactly. Very easy to pitch, especially after you've done it once or twice.

The Zpacks integrated net/tarp makes a lot more sense in many ways but I hate to use a tarp or fly unless it's really needed. I loosely attach the tarp, rolled on the ground along the length of the netting (the side away from the entrance) and I can fully deploy the tarp in about 30 seconds if it starts raining during the night.

For trips when I think light/moderate rain is a real possibility most nights I use a Tarptent Sublite tyvek, even simpler to pitch and quite a bit roomier. Definitely mists in extended heavy rain though. It may be discontinued.

[Tuckahoe]

With a thread such as this, the OP would be better served with a discussion of what makes a good lightweight or ultra lightweight shelter, and what features are ideal, along with the drawback of such tents. Otherwise all the topic becomes is a worship of the flavor of the week rather than a good assessment of what it is that makes a good shelter.

[Rex Clifton]

In a traditional double wall tent, which I prefer to the tarptent style shelters, you can't beat the Big Agnes Fly Creek series.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[Malto]

With a thread such as this, the OP would be better served with a discussion of what makes a good lightweight or ultra lightweight shelter, and what features are ideal, along with the drawback of such tents. Otherwise all the topic becomes is a worship of the flavor of the week rather than a good assessment of what it is that makes a good shelter.

^This. I would make a list on what is important. Target cost?, small footprint? Easy of setup? Space to hole up in storms? versatility to cowboy camp? bug Resistance? packed Volume? open Feeling vs completely closed? Do you want to do gynamastics to get in or out? seasons used? Etc Etc. the reason there is not a single style or manufacturer is because there is a wide range of needs. For example; I hike long days, often setup at night in crappy locations, hike all four seasons in a wide range of conditions, weight and volume is important, cost is not. So I made a shelter after looking at a wide range of commercially available styles. 90% of this exercise is defining the need. once you can clearly do that then you will get something other than a list of shelters that may or may not meet others needs. Also, the best way to get this insight is to spend time hiking. this is how you will learn what your style is.

[Slo-go'en]

It is a bit daunting trying to pick the right tent. There are so many different styles, weights and prices. Price and weight are closely linked. Less weight means more money. Funny how that works. If money is no object and you want the lightest tent possible you look at the Cuben fiber tents.



For trips when I think light/moderate rain is a real possibility most nights I use a Tarptent Sublite tyvek, even simpler to pitch and quite a bit roomier. Definitely mists in extended heavy rain though. It may be discontinued.

I was considering the Sublite tyvek, but went with the SMD Trekker instead. Similar style but made of silnylon. Couldn't justify the price tag of the Cuben version to save a few ounces.

For me, my requirements were enough head room to sit up and be able to change a shirt without rubbing against the sides of the tent. I also wanted a narrow foot print which makes it easier to find spots to pitch it and it had to be in the 2 pound range. I don't need a lot of extra space inside the tent. That led me to the "A" frame style tents.

My previous tent was the SMD Luna Solo. A decent enough and light enough tent, but the conical, pyramid like foot print requires a fairly large cleared area to pitch it in. Also the acute angle of the walls makes it impossible to change a shirt without rubbing against the fabric. Lastly, it's a little hard to stake out properly.

The above tents require trekking poles for support. Since most hikers use poles these days that's not a big issue. Self supporting tents are a bit heavier as they need the frame structure and are typically not quite in the UL category. But they do have advantages. You can pick them up and move them if you don't like exactly where you put it initially. It's much easier to use them on tent platforms (wood decks often found in steep, rocky places like NH and Maine) Their also usually dual wall, a fly over a mostly netting core.

[Busky2]

I love my SMD luna solo and have mastered staking it out by pacing off the right number of my foot lengths heel to toe for a great set up each time. But if I have shelters available to me every day like the AT (they weigh nothing) then I can take my Big Agnes Poncho Tarp at less than 8oz as my lightest shelter to have with me. Harder to master than tents and hammocks but lighter and serves as my rain gear too.

[Heliotrope]

I swear by my ray way silnylon tarp and spitfire netting tent. Each can be pitched independently or together. Though perhaps not the lightest it has more coverage than most tarps. I use the additional " batwing" door to close off an end during windy rain storms, which is an advantage over open ended A frame style tarps. I like the versatility of being able to leave the netting tent at home. It also makes a great bug bivy for sleeping in lean to shelters. I can pitch the tarp in a few minutes and adjust the height depending on weather conditions. You do have to sew this yourself. The advantages are that it is a very affordable high quality shelter. I like knowing that I can repair it myself. I will never go back to using traditional tents during three season use.

[Wülfgang]

^This. I would make a list on what is important. Target cost?, small footprint? Easy of setup? Space to hole up in storms? versatility to cowboy camp? bug Resistance? packed Volume? open Feeling vs completely closed? Do you want to do gynamastics to get in or out? seasons used? Etc Etc. the reason there is not a single style or manufacturer is because there is a wide range of needs. For example; I hike long days, often setup at night in crappy locations, hike all four seasons in a wide range of conditions, weight and volume is important, cost is not. So I made a shelter after looking at a wide range of commercially available styles. 90% of this exercise is defining the need. once you can clearly do that then you will get something other than a list of shelters that may or may not meet others needs. Also, the best way to get this insight is to spend time hiking. this is how you will learn what your style is.

Agree with the above. The caveat is you need to actually get out there before you can figure out what you need.

I used to think hammocks were right for me, and I liked them, but after a dozen or so nights in one I found I prefer the space of a tent. I need an easy setup, storm-worthiness, light weight, and just enough space for me and some gear. Maybe that will change one day, but I found this out through trial and error.

It's easy to get seduced by the latest and greatest UL gear when you're an armchair backpacker. Get out there and try some things. There is no one perfect shelter, only the right shelter for your needs and the conditions.

[Another Kevin]

I won't say what's best for you, but I'll share the reasoning that I used the last time I bought a tent.

Weight. When I bought the Notch, I was looking to shed some weight from the inexpensive free-standing tent that I had been using. At 4 pounds nine ounces, the old one was surely not ultralight! One reason that I'd chosen the old one was that it was big enough for two, and my daughter often came along with me. With her grown and moved away to school (and nobody to share the weight of shared gear) a smaller and lighter shelter was in order. Comparing specs in the catalogs, I found that "under 2 pounds" looked like a reasonable goal.

Trekking pole supported. I've used trekking poles for a few years now, and I'm surely not going back to hiking without them. (That's what works for my knees. Your knees are your own business.) If I'm going to be carrying poles anyway, tent poles seem like a redundant weight. The big disadvantage of a trekking pole supported tent is that they're non-free-standing. That means a much greater 'fiddle factor' in the pitch. I'm OK with that. I don't pitch that often on solid rock or on a tent platform. When I do, I'm able to be a bit creative. When I've not been able to drive a stake, or where a stake won't hold, I've anchored my current tent to bushes, rocks, snowshoes, 'dead men' (bits of debris tied to a cord and buried in snow or sand), and toggles dropped in the gaps in a tent platform. It's sometimes not come up with the tautest pitch, but it's held. If your style is to arrive at or after dusk and want to have your tent up in seconds, this may not be for you.

Bug protection. I live in a part of the world that is infested with biting insects. Black flies, green flies, deer flies, horseflies, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, all arrive in swarms. And I find a "bug bivy" to be uncomfortable, particularly in hot weather when I may be sleeping on top of my sleeping bag or just have it pulled loosely around me. In various times and places, I've used fly-and-footprint pitches of my other tent, or slept under a tarp, or even slit the bottom of a contractor bag and rigged it with a ridge line. It's almost always resulted in unpleasant encounters with the local wildlife. Blessed is he who sleepeth behind screens: for he shall remain sane. This will likely not be an issue for those who hike in the arid West. I'm here in the wet Northeast.

Wind protection. For various reasons, I'd say that at least half of my hiking happens outside of prime hiking season, and so I find myself sleeping in marginal weather or worse. With some shelters, I find that if I button up tightly against the wind, then I battle condensation. I'm pretty good at site selection, but sometimes you just can't get out of the weather. The disadvantage of good wind protection is that sometimes it's hard to set up to catch the breeze on hot nights. If I were out more in hot weather, or if I were in the South, I'd probably want a different design that what I settled on.

Space. Since I'm often out in cold or wet weather, I like having a place to organize gear that's out of the rain and snow. The lightest of the backpacking tents do not have a lot of vestibule space. I'm willing to pay a small weight penalty to have the room. Also, I'm over 6 feet and a restless sleeper, so I want a shelter that isn't too confining. A smaller hiker who enjoys more trustworthy weather would likely want a smaller and lighter shelter.

Height. I want to be able to sit up in my shelter without brushing against the roof. (No matter how water repellent the material, you'll draw water through it by touching it.) I also want the side walls to be at a steep enough angle that they will shed snow fairly readily. If I'm using a three-season tent in winter, I know that I'm likely to be outside at least once in the night to knock the snow off, but I want to minimize the number of times I have to do it. If all you ever do in your shelter is lie down to sleep, I'm sure that height is less of a consideration.

Easy entry. I'm an old man and not as limber as I once was. All else being equal, contorting myself around a trekking pole in the middle of a doorway will get annoying fast. (I knew when I crawled into a buddy's Contrail that it wasn't for me, and I nearly brought it down by dislodging the pole that held it up. But I know people who happily wriggle past their tent poles.

Bathtub floor. Sometimes I'm hiking in a swamp. But also, in rainy weather, a low pitch encourages condensation, while a higher pitch gets rain splatter. A bathtub floor helps keep the rain splatter out of the sleeping area.

Cost. Cuben Fiber is out of my price range, so silnylon is where it's at.

Fly-first or all-of-a-piece pitch. If I'm pitching in rain or sleet, it's really great to be able to keep the body of the tent dry. That could be a problem with my old tent, where I had to thread the poles in place, pop it up, stake it out, and only then drape the fly over it. In heavy weather, the next job would be to wipe up the floor with my pack towel. I considered this a "nice to have" feature, probably not essential.

With these considerations in mind, I finally settled on the TarpTent Notch. The SMD Lunar Solo was also very much in the running. What eventually decided me on the Notch was mainly that I could get it with the half-solid tent body, which is better for wind and snow. I also happened to like the dual-vestibule configuration. I can put my pack cover in one like a bathtub and use it to organize gear, and keep my boots in the other and go in and out through it. And in warm weather, I can open both doors and get a really nice breeze through it. But it was a close decision. Both tents have the poles in the center, which helps with snow loading and allows for easy entry. Both have generous floor space. Both pitch fast, and pitch all of a piece. The Lunar Solo has a bit more headroom.

Are these ultralight? It depends on your definition. Either is about a pound and a half. (I went with a few ounces heavier on the Notch to get the half-solid tent body). That's surely heavier than a little Cuben tarp, such as some of the UL'ers use. But it's surely lighter than most freestanding tents.

Are they for you? It depends on your style. I know people who would be happy hiking with a five-ounce Cuben tarp as their shelter, and others who would insist on a 2.5-pound freestanding tent so as not to hassle about the pitch. Only you can say what's right for you, and from your comments, it sounds as if you don't know your own hiking style yet.

[BenOnAdventures]

I won't say what's best for you, but I'll share the reasoning that I used the last time I bought a tent.

Weight. When I bought the Notch, I was looking to shed some weight from the inexpensive free-standing tent that I had been using. At 4 pounds nine ounces, the old one was surely not ultralight! One reason that I'd chosen the old one was that it was big enough for two, and my daughter often came along with me. With her grown and moved away to school (and nobody to share the weight of shared gear) a smaller and lighter shelter was in order. Comparing specs in the catalogs, I found that "under 2 pounds" looked like a reasonable goal.

Trekking pole supported. I've used trekking poles for a few years now, and I'm surely not going back to hiking without them. (That's what works for my knees. Your knees are your own business.) If I'm going to be carrying poles anyway, tent poles seem like a redundant weight. The big disadvantage of a trekking pole supported tent is that they're non-free-standing. That means a much greater 'fiddle factor' in the pitch. I'm OK with that. I don't pitch that often on solid rock or on a tent platform. When I do, I'm able to be a bit creative. When I've not been able to drive a stake, or where a stake won't hold, I've anchored my current tent to bushes, rocks, snowshoes, 'dead men' (bits of debris tied to a cord and buried in snow or sand), and toggles dropped in the gaps in a tent platform. It's sometimes not come up with the tautest pitch, but it's held. If your style is to arrive at or after dusk and want to have your tent up in seconds, this may not be for you.

Bug protection. I live in a part of the world that is infested with biting insects. Black flies, green flies, deer flies, horseflies, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, all arrive in swarms. And I find a "bug bivy" to be uncomfortable, particularly in hot weather when I may be sleeping on top of my sleeping bag or just have it pulled loosely around me. In various times and places, I've used fly-and-footprint pitches of my other tent, or slept under a tarp, or even slit the bottom of a contractor bag and rigged it with a ridge line. It's almost always resulted in unpleasant encounters with the local wildlife. Blessed is he who sleepeth behind screens: for he shall remain sane. This will likely not be an issue for those who hike in the arid West. I'm here in the wet Northeast.

Wind protection. For various reasons, I'd say that at least half of my hiking happens outside of prime hiking season, and so I find myself sleeping in marginal weather or worse. With some shelters, I find that if I button up tightly against the wind, then I battle condensation. I'm pretty good at site selection, but sometimes you just can't get out of the weather. The disadvantage of good wind protection is that sometimes it's hard to set up to catch the breeze on hot nights. If I were out more in hot weather, or if I were in the South, I'd probably want a different design that what I settled on.

Space. Since I'm often out in cold or wet weather, I like having a place to organize gear that's out of the rain and snow. The lightest of the backpacking tents do not have a lot of vestibule space. I'm willing to pay a small weight penalty to have the room. Also, I'm over 6 feet and a restless sleeper, so I want a shelter that isn't too confining. A smaller hiker who enjoys more trustworthy weather would likely want a smaller and lighter shelter.

Height. I want to be able to sit up in my shelter without brushing against the roof. (No matter how water repellent the material, you'll draw water through it by touching it.) I also want the side walls to be at a steep enough angle that they will shed snow fairly readily. If I'm using a three-season tent in winter, I know that I'm likely to be outside at least once in the night to knock the snow off, but I want to minimize the number of times I have to do it. If all you ever do in your shelter is lie down to sleep, I'm sure that height is less of a consideration.

Easy entry. I'm an old man and not as limber as I once was. All else being equal, contorting myself around a trekking pole in the middle of a doorway will get annoying fast. (I knew when I crawled into a buddy's Contrail that it wasn't for me, and I nearly brought it down by dislodging the pole that held it up. But I know people who happily wriggle past their tent poles.

Bathtub floor. Sometimes I'm hiking in a swamp. But also, in rainy weather, a low pitch encourages condensation, while a higher pitch gets rain splatter. A bathtub floor helps keep the rain splatter out of the sleeping area.

Cost. Cuben Fiber is out of my price range, so silnylon is where it's at.

Fly-first or all-of-a-piece pitch. If I'm pitching in rain or sleet, it's really great to be able to keep the body of the tent dry. That could be a problem with my old tent, where I had to thread the poles in place, pop it up, stake it out, and only then drape the fly over it. In heavy weather, the next job would be to wipe up the floor with my pack towel. I considered this a "nice to have" feature, probably not essential.

With these considerations in mind, I finally settled on the TarpTent Notch. The SMD Lunar Solo was also very much in the running. What eventually decided me on the Notch was mainly that I could get it with the half-solid tent body, which is better for wind and snow. I also happened to like the dual-vestibule configuration. I can put my pack cover in one like a bathtub and use it to organize gear, and keep my boots in the other and go in and out through it. And in warm weather, I can open both doors and get a really nice breeze through it. But it was a close decision. Both tents have the poles in the center, which helps with snow loading and allows for easy entry. Both have generous floor space. Both pitch fast, and pitch all of a piece. The Lunar Solo has a bit more headroom.

Are these ultralight? It depends on your definition. Either is about a pound and a half. (I went with a few ounces heavier on the Notch to get the half-solid tent body). That's surely heavier than a little Cuben tarp, such as some of the UL'ers use. But it's surely lighter than most freestanding tents.

Are they for you? It depends on your style. I know people who would be happy hiking with a five-ounce Cuben tarp as their shelter, and others who would insist on a 2.5-pound freestanding tent so as not to hassle about the pitch. Only you can say what's right for you, and from your comments, it sounds as if you don't know your own hiking style yet. Awesome, detailed answer! Thanks for the advice! And hiking style I'd say I'm in the process of transitioning to ultralight. I am more into off trail, back country backpacking. I eventually wanna do something like Andrew Skurka's Alaska Yukon Expedition. I have good skills that I try to improve each day. I am more into the off trail style of adventures, etc. Or adventures that haven't been done that much; for example, the Great Western Loop, North Country Trail, Buckeye Trail here in Ohio, etc. But awesome answer and I hope to hear back from you soon!!

[Another Kevin]

And hiking style I'd say I'm in the process of transitioning to ultralight. I am more into off trail, back country backpacking. I eventually wanna do something like Andrew Skurka's Alaska Yukon Expedition. I have good skills that I try to improve each day. I am more into the off trail style of adventures, etc. Or adventures that haven't been done that much; for example, the Great Western Loop, North Country Trail, Buckeye Trail here in Ohio, etc. But awesome answer and I hope to hear back from you soon!!

You're describing your aspirations, rather than your style. And I doubt that a single shelter does for all the things you list. Read Skurka's accounts and you'll see that on the Sea to Sea hike, he surely didn't carry the same gear in Wisconsin and Minnesota that he carried in summer in the West.

And even beyond that, there's more to style than where you go and what conditions you encounter. Do you like to sit up for a bit in the evening, perhaps reading and journaling, or do you just flop down and go to sleep? Do you sleep warm? Do you sleep like a rock, even on one, or are you like the Princess and the Pea? Is your natural inclination in foul weather just to put up with it, or to hole up where you are, or to try to get off trail to wait it out? Might you have to hole up anyway because conditions on the move are more than your skills or gear can handle? (Sometimes conditions are more than anyone's skills or gear can handle.) Are you comfortable in a bug bivy, or do you need screens? Or are you really a hammocker? Do you plan to spend most of your waking hours on the move, or do you like to be able to fish, or write, or sketch, or photograph, or just generally mess around in the woods?

You won't even learn the answers to some of these questions until you've been out there in conditions like what you aspire to. That's why so many of us go through several cycles of gear upgrades - buy something inexpensive, and get experience using it, before you commit big bucks to some fancy piece of gear. A lot of us sigh in retrospect and wish we'd gone directly to something with real performance - but none of us knew ourselves well enough to decide what that something would be.

You'll find that some of the real adventurers among us make very different choices. Malto uses a fairly exotic cottage-industry quilt and a bug bivy that I'd find downright claustrophobic, under a tarp that would give me real challenges keeping everything dry. I've shared a shelter with him at -3 degrees Fahrenheit, and he apparently was comfortable with his stuff. (Me, I was ok with my bulky Marmot Never Summer bag, which was surely considerably more weight and volume, but would not want to chance matters with less.) He goes a lot faster than I do, and has a lot more miles under his belt.

On the other hand, Mags has thousands of miles on a cheap Kelty Cosmic sleeping bag, and discourses at length on how to have a good time with dirtbag gear. I've got more useful gear tips from Mags than from Malto, not because Paul is smarter than Greg, or because Paul is in more similar conditions to where I go, but simply because Paul's personal preferences are more like mine.

In short, if you're asking, "what's the best?" rather than describing what features you're looking for, you probably simply don't know enough for an answer to be meaningful. The answer to "what's the best ...?" is most likely "Buy something used for not too much money, and try it out on a few trips until you learn what you want."

[RangerZ]

<Yoda voice>: "There is no perfect, only right for you."

DO it and come back and tell us about it.


But I repeat myself.

[BenOnAdventures]

Thank you everyone! This afternoon I was looking up different bivys and found the army surplus goretex one on amazon for a little over 50, what's your feeling on that? Reviews seem to be good..

[Tuckahoe]

Thank you everyone! This afternoon I was looking up different bivys and found the army surplus goretex one on amazon for a little over 50, what's your feeling on that? Reviews seem to be good..

what criteria are you establishing for yourself that leads you to considering the surplus bivy?

[Malto]

Thank you everyone! This afternoon I was looking up different bivys and found the army surplus goretex one on amazon for a little over 50, what's your feeling on that? Reviews seem to be good..

What is the weight on this? I saw 2lbs which if accurate is way too heavy. At about twice the price you can get a TiGoat bivy which weighs about 8 oz. Is $60 worth it for 24 oz. Virtually every UL hiker would say heck yes. $2.50 an ounce savings is easy.

[Venchka]

Thank you everyone! This afternoon I was looking up different bivys and found the army surplus goretex one on amazon for a little over 50, what's your feeling on that? Reviews seem to be good..

When asking advice about specific products, please include specific facts about that product.
On the other hand it looks like you already have good advice about the surplus bivi. How many nights have you spent in a bivi? Hey.
All of which leads me to think that you aren't paying attention to Kevin. Heck, I'm older than dirt and I'm learning a lot from Kevin and many other folks here. Kevin nailed many of my gear buying mistakes and we've never met.

Wayne



Sent from somewhere around here.

[Venchka]

Or should that be bivy?

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

[Sarcasm the elf]

You're describing your aspirations, rather than your style. And I doubt that a single shelter does for all the things you list. Read Skurka's accounts and you'll see that on the Sea to Sea hike, he surely didn't carry the same gear in Wisconsin and Minnesota that he carried in summer in the West.

And even beyond that, there's more to style than where you go and what conditions you encounter. Do you like to sit up for a bit in the evening, perhaps reading and journaling, or do you just flop down and go to sleep? Do you sleep warm? Do you sleep like a rock, even on one, or are you like the Princess and the Pea? Is your natural inclination in foul weather just to put up with it, or to hole up where you are, or to try to get off trail to wait it out? Might you have to hole up anyway because conditions on the move are more than your skills or gear can handle? (Sometimes conditions are more than anyone's skills or gear can handle.) Are you comfortable in a bug bivy, or do you need screens? Or are you really a hammocker? Do you plan to spend most of your waking hours on the move, or do you like to be able to fish, or write, or sketch, or photograph, or just generally mess around in the woods?

You won't even learn the answers to some of these questions until you've been out there in conditions like what you aspire to. That's why so many of us go through several cycles of gear upgrades - buy something inexpensive, and get experience using it, before you commit big bucks to some fancy piece of gear. A lot of us sigh in retrospect and wish we'd gone directly to something with real performance - but none of us knew ourselves well enough to decide what that something would be.

You'll find that some of the real adventurers among us make very different choices. Malto uses a fairly exotic cottage-industry quilt and a bug bivy that I'd find downright claustrophobic, under a tarp that would give me real challenges keeping everything dry. I've shared a shelter with him at -3 degrees Fahrenheit, and he apparently was comfortable with his stuff. (Me, I was ok with my bulky Marmot Never Summer bag, which was surely considerably more weight and volume, but would not want to chance matters with less.) He goes a lot faster than I do, and has a lot more miles under his belt.

On the other hand, Mags has thousands of miles on a cheap Kelty Cosmic sleeping bag, and discourses at length on how to have a good time with dirtbag gear. I've got more useful gear tips from Mags than from Malto, not because Paul is smarter than Greg, or because Paul is in more similar conditions to where I go, but simply because Paul's personal preferences are more like mine.

In short, if you're asking, "what's the best?" rather than describing what features you're looking for, you probably simply don't know enough for an answer to be meaningful. The answer to "what's the best ...?" is most likely "Buy something used for not too much money, and try it out on a few trips until you learn what you want."

Kevin, That's some of the best beginner advice I've seen and honestly I thibk you should re-work it a bit and post it in the Articles section.

[Venchka]

Or should that be bivy?

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

Ah ha! Another word made up for folks who couldn't spell bivouac.
Learning something new everyday.
Kevin:
Where the were you when I was buying gear in the 1970's & 1990's?

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

[Another Kevin]

Where the were you when I was buying gear in the 1970's & 1990's?
I know the question is flippant, but I think it deserves an answer anyway.

In the 1970s, I was living in Hanover, buying several pieces of totally inappropriate gear and learning some of these lessons the hard way. I account myself fortunate that Mother Nature allowed me to learn. The Whites can teach some very harsh lessons. Particularly when you combine poor gear choices and inexperience with other poor life choices. Some of mine would have Alligator chasing me out of here for ToS violations if I were to discuss them in detail. Kids make mistakes, and smart kids - I was a Dartmouth junior at 18, before I wound up taking a couple of years off school to reboot my life - make worse ones.

In the 1990s, I was dealing with work and family, and didn't get out on the trails much. When I picked the hobby up again after too many years away, I knew that my style would have changed, and that I wouldn't know how it had changed without getting Out There again. I didn't go overboard on gear at first. I had needed to discard what little I still had from the 1970's - most of it, I'd given away to cousins in Scouting, and the rest had deteriorated in storage.

I backpacked for several years in the 00's (a decade that I've heard called the Naughties) with stuff from the REI garage sale and outlet, from Aunt Sallie, and from XYZ-Mart. Some of that stuff, I still use. It's hard to beat the Grease Pot, for instance. A 200-weight fleece with a company logo that someone gave to the thrift store is just as warm as a 200-weight fleece with a fancy brand name from the outfitter. The entry-level 20 degree down bag - I'm not naming the brand, it isn't important - still comes with me on most trips. When I'm taking a newbie out, I'll tote along the freestanding 2-person tent (at 4.5 pounds) and let the newbie carry a day or two of my food to balance the load - or just treat the extra few pounds as the price of letting the newbie have a good time.

You'll notice that I don't give very specific gear advice, most of the time. The "clueless weekender" moniker, adopted in jest, actually is half serious. I know very little about long-distance hiking. It's not my style. I run to weekends and short sections, mostly over technical terrain, in four seasons. Ask Elf, he's been out with me a few times, what sort of conditions I like to hike in. Someone other than me would be better to advise about choices for grinding out 15- and 20-mile days, repeatedly, over more moderate trail.

[Venchka]

Well said as always.
My '70s mistakes were limited to backpacks: I tried my official BSA external frame pack with a fancy hip belt from Colin Fletcher's favorite outfitter. Fail. Followed by another external frame pack "just like the one Jim Whittaker used on Everest." Fail.
Things I got right: a pair of boots I bought from a friend, the lightest down bag in REI's catalog at the time. My granddaughter has it now and loves it. Svea 123 stove. Best of all: a 2 1/2 pound frameless Jensen pack from Rivendell Mountain Works. Still have it. Still available today. I plan to use it after I retire. Soon.
I have looked long and hard at modern gear. I did update my sleep system mainly because my old pad & pillow weren't working for me and I figured I was due for a new bag. I may buy a new 3 season shelter to compliment the 4 season tent from 1994 and save 2 pounds.
My thoughts on new gear: If it's working and ain't broke, don't fix it.
Right now I think that my focus will be on 1 up
to maybe 3 week explorations where re-supply is not possible. With the two packs I have, I can cover that time frame.
BTW: 3 of my favorite fleece garments are no name brands bought at big box store sidewalk sales.
Sorry for the thread drift. Maybe it will help someone new.

Wayne


Sent from somewhere around here.

[Venchka]

Awesome, detailed answer! Thanks for the advice! And hiking style I'd say I'm in the process of transitioning to ultralight. I am more into off trail, back country backpacking. I eventually wanna do something like Andrew Skurka's Alaska Yukon Expedition. I have good skills that I try to improve each day. I am more into the off trail style of adventures, etc. Or adventures that haven't been done that much; for example, the Great Western Loop, North Country Trail, Buckeye Trail here in Ohio, etc. But awesome answer and I hope to hear back from you soon!!
Bang on topic. Off Trail is what you want? Alaska you say?
Follow this link.

http://bucktrack.com/Alaska_Backpacking_Gear_List_Review.html

Funny thing about the list. Most of the items are frequently mentioned in these forums. Good quality gear works just about anywhere.

Wayne

Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk

[mtnkngxt]

I prefer Zpacks and Mountain Laurel Designs shelters. Zpacks Altaplex is my go to 3 season shelter for solo trips. It has good ventilation for a cuben tent, is light, and in my experience durable with reasonable care.

For 2 hikers, I would not hesitate to use a Duplex for a 3season shelter.

For winter on the other hand I prefer the simplicity and weather tight design of the MLD Duomid and use it in conjunction with a Zpacks cuben groundsheet. Keeps my gear dry, and the snow out. The walls are steep enough that light to medium snow doesn't seem to accumulate, and one or two good smacks on each wall releases the snow load if needed.

These shelters are very expensive, if I had to choose only one I would pick the MLD Duomid and spring for the innernet. It would give you the most protection year round.

[Berserker]

What is the weight on this? I saw 2lbs which if accurate is way too heavy. At about twice the price you can get a TiGoat bivy which weighs about 8 oz. Is $60 worth it for 24 oz. Virtually every UL hiker would say heck yes. $2.50 an ounce savings is easy.
Yeah, I'm curious about this too. I'm not an ultra lightweight guy myself, but typically when I see that term it's usually talking about a shelter setup such as a cuben tarp at maybe 6 oz. Anyway, to the OP if you are really looking at something that's 2 lbs then you might want to consider a nice lightweight shelter like something from Tarptent, Mountain Laurel Designs, Lightheart Gear or any one of the other cottage manufacturers that makes this category of shelter. I can attest to the first 3 as I have used shelters from all of them (well actually I have a new Solong 6 that I have yet to get out on the trail, but I'm sure it's gonna be sweeeeeet), and all of the shelters I've used are 2 man fully enclosed shelters that weigh at or slightly over 2 lbs.

[BenOnAdventures]

Bang on topic. Off Trail is what you want? Alaska you say?
Follow this link.

http://bucktrack.com/Alaska_Backpacking_Gear_List_Review.html

Funny thing about the list. Most of the items are frequently mentioned in these forums. Good quality gear works just about anywhere.

Wayne

Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk Sorry for the late reply (was my grandparents 50th anniversary and we had a ton of family here) But awesome link! Thanks, I checked it out and saved it!!

[Venchka]

Sorry for the late reply (was my grandparents 50th anniversary and we had a ton of family here) But awesome link! Thanks, I checked it out and saved it!!
Glad you liked it. I hope that you find the information useful and helpful.
Standing by for your trip report from the Brooks Range.

Wayne

Sent from my AT100 using Tapatalk

[English Stu]

+1 for the TT Notch. Great reply Kevin.

[egilbe]

I won't say what's best for you, but I'll share the reasoning that I used the last time I bought a tent.

Weight. When I bought the Notch, I was looking to shed some weight from the inexpensive free-standing tent that I had been using. At 4 pounds nine ounces, the old one was surely not ultralight! One reason that I'd chosen the old one was that it was big enough for two, and my daughter often came along with me. With her grown and moved away to school (and nobody to share the weight of shared gear) a smaller and lighter shelter was in order. Comparing specs in the catalogs, I found that "under 2 pounds" looked like a reasonable goal.

Trekking pole supported. I've used trekking poles for a few years now, and I'm surely not going back to hiking without them. (That's what works for my knees. Your knees are your own business.) If I'm going to be carrying poles anyway, tent poles seem like a redundant weight. The big disadvantage of a trekking pole supported tent is that they're non-free-standing. That means a much greater 'fiddle factor' in the pitch. I'm OK with that. I don't pitch that often on solid rock or on a tent platform. When I do, I'm able to be a bit creative. When I've not been able to drive a stake, or where a stake won't hold, I've anchored my current tent to bushes, rocks, snowshoes, 'dead men' (bits of debris tied to a cord and buried in snow or sand), and toggles dropped in the gaps in a tent platform. It's sometimes not come up with the tautest pitch, but it's held. If your style is to arrive at or after dusk and want to have your tent up in seconds, this may not be for you.

Bug protection. I live in a part of the world that is infested with biting insects. Black flies, green flies, deer flies, horseflies, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, all arrive in swarms. And I find a "bug bivy" to be uncomfortable, particularly in hot weather when I may be sleeping on top of my sleeping bag or just have it pulled loosely around me. In various times and places, I've used fly-and-footprint pitches of my other tent, or slept under a tarp, or even slit the bottom of a contractor bag and rigged it with a ridge line. It's almost always resulted in unpleasant encounters with the local wildlife. Blessed is he who sleepeth behind screens: for he shall remain sane. This will likely not be an issue for those who hike in the arid West. I'm here in the wet Northeast.

Wind protection. For various reasons, I'd say that at least half of my hiking happens outside of prime hiking season, and so I find myself sleeping in marginal weather or worse. With some shelters, I find that if I button up tightly against the wind, then I battle condensation. I'm pretty good at site selection, but sometimes you just can't get out of the weather. The disadvantage of good wind protection is that sometimes it's hard to set up to catch the breeze on hot nights. If I were out more in hot weather, or if I were in the South, I'd probably want a different design that what I settled on.

Space. Since I'm often out in cold or wet weather, I like having a place to organize gear that's out of the rain and snow. The lightest of the backpacking tents do not have a lot of vestibule space. I'm willing to pay a small weight penalty to have the room. Also, I'm over 6 feet and a restless sleeper, so I want a shelter that isn't too confining. A smaller hiker who enjoys more trustworthy weather would likely want a smaller and lighter shelter.

Height. I want to be able to sit up in my shelter without brushing against the roof. (No matter how water repellent the material, you'll draw water through it by touching it.) I also want the side walls to be at a steep enough angle that they will shed snow fairly readily. If I'm using a three-season tent in winter, I know that I'm likely to be outside at least once in the night to knock the snow off, but I want to minimize the number of times I have to do it. If all you ever do in your shelter is lie down to sleep, I'm sure that height is less of a consideration.

Easy entry. I'm an old man and not as limber as I once was. All else being equal, contorting myself around a trekking pole in the middle of a doorway will get annoying fast. (I knew when I crawled into a buddy's Contrail that it wasn't for me, and I nearly brought it down by dislodging the pole that held it up. But I know people who happily wriggle past their tent poles.

Bathtub floor. Sometimes I'm hiking in a swamp. But also, in rainy weather, a low pitch encourages condensation, while a higher pitch gets rain splatter. A bathtub floor helps keep the rain splatter out of the sleeping area.

Cost. Cuben Fiber is out of my price range, so silnylon is where it's at.

Fly-first or all-of-a-piece pitch. If I'm pitching in rain or sleet, it's really great to be able to keep the body of the tent dry. That could be a problem with my old tent, where I had to thread the poles in place, pop it up, stake it out, and only then drape the fly over it. In heavy weather, the next job would be to wipe up the floor with my pack towel. I considered this a "nice to have" feature, probably not essential.

With these considerations in mind, I finally settled on the TarpTent Notch. The SMD Lunar Solo was also very much in the running. What eventually decided me on the Notch was mainly that I could get it with the half-solid tent body, which is better for wind and snow. I also happened to like the dual-vestibule configuration. I can put my pack cover in one like a bathtub and use it to organize gear, and keep my boots in the other and go in and out through it. And in warm weather, I can open both doors and get a really nice breeze through it. But it was a close decision. Both tents have the poles in the center, which helps with snow loading and allows for easy entry. Both have generous floor space. Both pitch fast, and pitch all of a piece. The Lunar Solo has a bit more headroom.

Are these ultralight? It depends on your definition. Either is about a pound and a half. (I went with a few ounces heavier on the Notch to get the half-solid tent body). That's surely heavier than a little Cuben tarp, such as some of the UL'ers use. But it's surely lighter than most freestanding tents.

Are they for you? It depends on your style. I know people who would be happy hiking with a five-ounce Cuben tarp as their shelter, and others who would insist on a 2.5-pound freestanding tent so as not to hassle about the pitch. Only you can say what's right for you, and from your comments, it sounds as if you don't know your own hiking style yet.

This could have been written by me if I wasn't so lazy. I chose an SMD Haven tarp. It's not perfect but it's good enough.

[Gry]

The solplex is a great solo tent. I enjoyed having a bathtub floor and net. If you're carrying trekking poles it is my preferred route.